


Divine Right of Kings

by marauding_bagel



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, Ghost King Danny
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-28 22:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11427117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marauding_bagel/pseuds/marauding_bagel
Summary: Right of conquest.Danny Phantom had defeated the Ghost King, Pariah Dark, and so the throne was his by right of conquest.





	Divine Right of Kings

Right of conquest.

Danny Phantom had defeated the Ghost King, Pariah Dark and so the throne was his by right of conquest. Not that Danny Fenton was aware of this. Initially, after the battle, he had gone home to Amity Park and countinued his life. 

But while the teen was ready for sleepless nights of ghost fighting and stressful days of dodging questions nothing ever came. The nights were silent and the days went on as though he had never fallen in the portal to begin with. School was normal. His parents laid off the threats to murder him. (Granted they didn't _know_ it was him, still). It was quiet. Peaceful.

Danny didn't trust it for a moment. It should have given him rest. He had time to do his homework and hang out with friends and sleep, The wounds from his fight healed and fresh ones didn't replace them. It should have been a dream come true. Instead he felt himself become filled with paranoia. Jumping at the smallest touches and always looking out for the next ghost attack. He had nightmares on the nights he could fall asleep. 

Which is how, a month after the final battle with Pariah, Danny found himself wandering down to the Ghost Zone portal. He couldn't sleep; images of plasma and blood and fights that were just a little too close danced behind closed eyelids. It wasn't long before he gave up and decided to get some water. Too tired to walk he had decided to float down, ghost hunting parents be damned. He hadn't counted on floating down past the kitchen into the lab. But there he was and there was the portal.

Danny knew better than to open it himself if didn't need to. Why invite ghosts that he would just have to fight? But there had to be a reason everything just ceased and some part of him knew the answers didn't lay within the realm of humans. It called to him. There was a pulling in his chest and before he could even think about what he was doing Danny found himself floating through into the world of ghosts.

The first thing he noticed was that it felt different. The Ghost Zone seemed to buzz with an energy he'd never felt before and the faint glow of ectoplasm that always encompassed his ghostly form grew brighter. He moved a little faster than he meant to as well. He drifted through the sectors. Every so often he would see, or think he saw, something green in the corner of his eye but by the time he turned to look it would be gone. Chasing after it led nowhere. So Danny kept his focus on his peripheral and moved slowly. Something was out there watching him.

When he did spot it again the green form was following at a steady pace, unaware that it was in his line of sight. He whirled around, "Aha! Come here you little gremlin!" Danny expected it to flee without so much as a word. Probably to never return or to stalk him from a much farther distance. He did not expect the ghost to come forward, meekly looking down. 

"I-i'm sorry H-highness," The ghost child stammered. "I w-was j-just trying to g-get a -b-b-better loo--o-ok." The kid started crying, the wails reverberating on the surrounding terrain. Danny blinked. 

He reached to offered a comforting hand. The kid flinched, eyes filled with fear. "It's okay!" Danny said. "I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise." The kid looked skeptical but his sobbing subsided to quiet sniffles. Danny reached out his hand and introduced himself. 

"B-but your name isn't Danny," The child protested. His fear subsiding into the defiance only children can manage as he looked at Danny. "You're Phantom! The disappeared king of the Ghost Zone!" 

Danny's brow furrowed. "The what or the where?" Something wasn't adding up. The king of the Ghost Zone was Pariah Dark... who he had defeated and dethroned. Things began clicking into into place. 

Danny turned to fly away. He called over his shoulder to the confused child, "Sorry kid, I've gotta go see someone!" 

***

Clockwork called it the right of conquest. That's what led to Danny being offered the throne of the entire Ghost Zone. Not that it was much of an offer since everyone had apparently already decided he was king. 

"You can always refuse," The ghost said. "After all you are only a halfa, and little more than a child at that. There are few who would fault you." Despite his apathetic tone Clockwork seemed anything but. The ghost was pacing around, even if he tried to cover with the guise of working on something. He flipped through books without looking and moved things around without really doing anything with them. Danny squinted his eyes The out he was being given seemed too easy, especially after the past few years of fighting ghosts and getting to know their world. _It's mine too_ , he thought. _Or it could be at least._

He thought back to the things he had seen of the Ghost Zone. The disarray and lack of unity. The impromptu leaders who abused their power. The ghosts who found themselves with no better outlet for their pent up energy and emotion than to attack the living. Wasn't it all because Pariah Dark failed them as king? He could see a future in his min's eye where that wasn't the case. The sectors of the Ghost Zone could be united and the inhabitants could have better lives than that of constant fighting. Besides, it was their belief of him as king that was keeping inside the Ghost Zone now. 

Clockwork reminded him again that it was perfectly acceptable for Danny to go back to his life of before. Even without thinking he knew what his answer would be. His life before was one of never ending fighting without recourse. 

"I'll do it."

"Very well then." Clockwork gave him an almost sad smile, like he knew something Danny didn't. "My king."

Danny swallowed. A vague sense of doubt crept up his neck as he followed the ghost into the future.

 

***

Danny makes frequent trips to the Ghost Zone. He flies among the inhabitants who have welcomed his gladly as their king. He speaks with them and spends as much time as he can between his human life and the intense lessons in how to rule he's receiving from Clockwork. It's a lot of work to rule. There's policy and politics and he has to make decisions like what to do with the army. He decides for now to leave it standing, you never know if it'll be needed in the future after all. Clockwork just responds with the sad smile he's been handing out a lot recently. 

Clockwork becomes his head adviser, ruling in Danny's place while he's in the human world. The ghost wasn't wrong to have apprehension about a halfa king; there's a section of the population, albeit rather small, that is quite vocal about their discontent with a ruler whose heart is with a different world. Danny knows he rushed into this choice then. But he can't back out, he made a promise, took an oath in front of all his subjects that he would be their ruler, their servant. 

And they love him for it. Even as the teen struggles to find balance and learn his role they continue to trust and praise him. He works to roll out new laws and undo the damage caused by his predecessor. He finds himself engrossed in the work even when he makes time for the human world. 

The balance shifts in favor of family and old friends and yet he finds himself never having time to hang out for long. Duty calls.

***

He doesn't realize it at first but his power is growing. Every moment he spends in the Ghost Zone, in his kingdom he feels more alive as energy crackles within him. (A part of him whispers that this is his lair but he ignores it. This belongs to his people and the future he sees for them, not for him). 

***

There is unrest. Clockwork assures him that this is normal for every kingdom, that even the greatest of rulers can never be loved by all. Still Danny fears failing the people of the Ghost Zone. He ups the patrols of his guard across the world of ghosts. 

Clockwork's face sets into a thin line. The smiles, however melancholy, cease after that and Danny feels that he has truly made a mistake. 

***

He remembers his vision. Whenever he doubts, whenever he second guess himself or thinks in a moment of weakness that he made the wrong choice, Danny Phantom thinks back to the idea of a better future. The picture of two worlds which live together in peace where he doesn't have to fear those who love him the most. 

He sees them less and less. His grades in school have been slipping and his family questions of where he goes to for so much of the day. (He fears they know he spends most of the night away but they say nothing). Danny promises to spend more time at home and do better in school. 

He does for a few weeks but then a lose group of ghosts attempts an uprising in the Outskirts. Danny spends three days inside the Ghost Zone deliberating with his advisers and trying to negotiate before he sends in a small group of his soldiers to arrest them. 

Clockwork looks like he wants to speak up. Yet he says nothing when Danny looks to him. 

His parents shake their heads when he returns and give him sad looks but say nothing. 

***

Danny struggles to contain himself. In the times when he is alone, few and far between as they are, he finds himself trying to learn his growing host of powers and failing to control them. He tries not to fear himself, his strength. 

***

For every problem of Pariah that he fixes another three pop up. 

He has a vision. Everything seems to be spinning out of control and he can't remember the last time he actually slept in his bed at home. But things are improving. He knows he's making a difference even if he can't walk amongst his people like he once did. 

He has to make a difference. He holds onto this as a life raft. Even as everything else falls apart if he can do this then it will be okay. It's worth it; this is why that accident happened, why he fought. This is how he protects those he loves. His friends, his family, his people.

***

One he goes to school and they tell him he is no longer enrolled He missed too much, they say. 

Later, alone in the dark of his room, long after his parents have made it clear the disappointed silence is not leaving anytime soon, Danny wonders if Clockwork would turn it all back. 

***

He doesn't give up on his dream. He holds it in his heart even when news of a new resurgence arrives. 

"My King,"" a knight addresses Phantom. "There are too many of them, they are too much for us soldiers alone. Please we need you aid."

Danny Phantom gives a slow nod. "I have spent far too much time sending others to address this. I should have spoken to them the first time." He dons his official garb, the crown and cloak that marks him as king. "I just hope it's not too late to fix this," he whispers to himself. 

For a moment Danny thinks he sees Clockworks impassive face turn hopeful. He blinks and it is gone but Danny keeps it in his heart as reassurance that this is something he can do. He can turn around everything that has been falling apart and put it back together. He can guide the world and shape it into something that can harmonize with the one of the living. 

He smiles and prepares a speech in his head.

***

The battle is terribly bloody. 

Not a one has interest in listening to a boy who swore fealty to serve a people but kept his heart in another world. They don't care to hear of a future that was shaped with the benefit of others over their own. Danny realizes his error far too late and nothing can be done to subdue this peacefully. 

The enemy surges forward and his own soldiers charge without command. The sides tear each other apart and Danny watches the culmination of his nativity take form. It is unlike any battle he has seen before now. 

And the emotion inside his chest fills him with shame and rage and sorrow and he cannot possibly contain this. 

He screams.

***

In the aftermath, when everything clears and he can see what has become of those who he meant to protect, Danny cannot breathe. There is nothing left but raw ectoplasm cutting a straight path through the heart of the battle. Those lucky enough to be on the outside slow to a halt and look on in disbelief. 

They turn to him. Danny cannot look at their faces.

He flees.

***

The revolts stop after that. He rolls out new policy and law and it is followed. No one makes suggestions or petitions for certain changes or comes to court for a chance to see him anymore. Phantom tries to go back to them. 

They hide in fear the first time. And the second time. Eventually they learn he won;t hurt them but there is a distance that cannot be crossed. No one speaks to him like a beloved king or a savior. No one looks at him with trust. The faces that meet his eyes are always filled with fear or anger or resentment. Those who knew him before the throne look at him with pity and shake their heads. It is him who cannot look at them. 

Eventually he stops going out.

***

The weight of the crown has broken some part of him. He cannot think of his dream for the world: it was selfish and childish and something that was impossible for him to obtain. Danny resigns himself to the throne and seldom leaves it.

Phantom understands the smiles from Clockwork now. 

***

The memory of life before is something he tries not to think about. How long has it been since someone called him Danny Fenton? How long has it been since his parents hugged him or spoke to him as the child they loved? 

A wall breaks within him and he finds himself flying out of the Ghost Zone. 

He doesn't realize how long it's been. Entering the lab he turns back to a human, Thing shave been moved around a lot in the past few days he has been gone but Danny thinks nothing of it. His parents spend so much time messing in here that it changes all the time.

He enters the kitchen without thinking about it. His mother and father are sitting at the table eating breakfast and chatting with each other. They seem happy and it makes Danny smile. Then they see him. His mother drops her mug and it smashes onto the floor, coffee spilling everywhere. His father only stares with confusion and uncertainty. 

It was then that he caught sight of his reflection in the microwave. His jaw squarer, face less boyish, stubble lining his face. He hadn't been gone for a few days or even a few weeks.

He'd been gone for years.

***

After that he stayed away from the human world. He couldn't look at his parents and tell them more lies. He couldn't tell them the truth either. So Danny just left and returned to being Phantom King of Ghosts. He had made a promise to to rule when he was too young to understand the meaning of that promise. Still, he could not let himself let go of that promise. 

Over the long years Phantom forgets what it was he originally had envisioned. He forgets when last he was human and finds that he no longer can leave his ghost form. He forgets he ever had another form. He sits on his throne and attends meeting and trains his powers so that he may defend his lair should an attack ever come. 

Sometimes he feels a strange longing for something else. It confuses him; there is nothing for him outside of this duty that has always been his. He does not worry himself about it too much however. They are few and far between, wisps of dreams from when he lets himself indulge on the habit of sleep. (Where did he pick that up anyways?) 

***

One day he sits with his most trusted adviser, his only friend. Clockwork has always been by his side, always supported him. He doesn't know who he'd be without the other ghost and tells him as much. He's so thankful for the friendship, the aid, the support that he can find nowhere else.

Clockwork seems to choke. He turns his king, eyes shining with something, "I'm so sorry Danny. I'm so sorry I didn't do more to advert this future."

Phantom furrows his brow. "Who is Danny"

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this around midnight and it is unbeta'd so I apologize for any grammar/spelling/formatting errors. Please feel free to point them out in comments and I'll fix them.  
> (I may also come back to edit for pacing and what not later. Tell me what you think).
> 
> This is the first fic I've written and finished in roughly two years. A large part of why I wrote this was All-Fandoms-Mother on tumblr so special shout out to them for letting me bounce around ideas and generally being hype for this. 
> 
> Tell me what you thought of it down in the comments and thank you for reading.


End file.
